Xaenis
Xaenis The Xaenis were a group of mostly omnivorous species serving under (and created by) the Xaenis Queen. They shared some similarities with reptiles, crustaceans and insects but were unlike anything else seen on Earth before or since. Each Xaenis had some degree of telepathic connection with the Queen, and their society operated as a eusocial hive mind (or superorganism), however they were not mindless drones - they still had autonomy and self-awareness. The death of the Queen by the Dragon Emperor cut off the telepathic link, leaving the Xaenis leaderless, aimless and scattered, and it also dealt a severe emotional blow to the Xaenis, who perceived the Xaenis Queen as their mother and almost as a deity. This left them in an animalistic, terrified state in which they were easy to kill. The Hive stopped functioning, and most of the Xaenis starved. Although each Xaenis species had a very different appearance and function, they all shared similar physical traits, for example a lack of hair, thick black blood, dense muscles, black eyes with yellow irides, and a lean or gaunt appearance. Their most striking feature was their exoskeleton (in addition to an internal skeleton), which was predominantly white but in certain areas had a thick, black and lustrous carapace on top. In the joins between segments of the exoskeleton, black flesh was visible. Unless stated otherwise in their descriptions, all the Xaenis shared these physical traits. Xaenis reproduced through a system of reprocessing animal biomatter in "vats" within the Hive. These vats were organisms themselves, named "Processors". The Xaenis could sustain their numbers by continually reprocessing the matter of dead Xaenis (although over several generations the quality of biomatter would steadily decay, creating weaker Xaenis with a higher chance of mutation), but could only grow their numbers by bringing in more biomatter from other species, which in turn added more variety to the gene pool and provided the offspring of that biomatter with some of the traits of the original species - for example, those Xaenis created from hominid biomatter tended to be far more intelligent than those made from lesser animals. The Xaenis also developed an immunity to most poisons and venoms by introducing the animals that created them into their gene pool through the vats. The Xaenis lived in Siberia for an unknown amount of time before migrating south, breaching the Great Shield and invading the Nesarian Empire and its allies in the War Against the Xaenis. The Xaenis were totally unlike anything else on Earth, leading to three theories as to their origin. The first theory is that they were created by magic during the Age of Titans and managed to escape the Annihilation, living in exile in Siberia until they felt the time was right to return. The second theory is that the Xaenis are aliens who arrived on Earth, landing in Siberia not long before leaving for the Nesarian Empire. This theory does not explain why the Xaenis went to the Nesarian Empire rather than other regions which would have been much easier to conquer, however it is supported by archaelogical evidence that seems to have no alternative explanation, and various civilisations in the region simultaneously recorded some sort of object landing on Earth (although what the object was varies between records, with most likening it to a meteor but some depicting it as a black oblong shape). If confirmed, this would prove the existence of intelligent aliens, but it would also be worrisome as these intelligent aliens were genocidal warmongers. The third and final theory is that they were inhabitants of the Dreadlands who escaped their realm. Name The name "Xaenis" is believed to come from the Xaenis Queen herself, through her telepathic communication with various individuals. In English, the word "Xaenis" is both the singular and plural form, and it is pronounced "zay-niss" (zeɪnɪs) but in Nesarian the plural is Xaenise and the word is pronounced "zay-nees" (zeɪniːs) for the singular and "zay-nees-eh" (zeɪniːsɛ) for the plural. The spelling of the world is Elvish in origin, which has different pronunciation rules to Nesarian, making the pronunciation as it is rather than "ksai-nees" (ksaɪniːs) which would follow the standard Nesarian pronunciation rules. Types of Xaenis Soldier The Soldier was the most numerous, least intelligent, least autonomous and least powerful of the Xaenis. They acted almost entirely on instinct, and it is doubtful that they were able to feel pain beyond the basic reflex to harm. The Soldier resembled a large wolf in shape and size, but with hoofed rear legs, and their front legs had one large curved blade-like claw, serrated on the inwards side and blunt on the outwards side, which was used both for slashing and crushing blows. Their carapace covered their back, the top of the tail, the top of the skull and the front of their thighs. Brute The Brute had marginally more intelligence and autonomy than the Soldier, and they acted as "tank" troops, designed not only to be powerful fighters but to be so physically imposing that they drew the enemy's attention away from the Soldiers. Their main weakness was their slow movement and slow reactions, which came as a result of dulling their senses to improve their resistance to shock from wounds. The Brute was vaguely humanoid in appearance, standing on two hoofed feet with two arms that ended in the same kind of blade-like claws as the Soldiers - serrated facing inwards and blunt facing outwards. They varied from seven to eight feet tall. Their carapace covered their back, top of the skull, top of the tail, front of the thighs and shins and the sternum. Sergeant The Sergeant had more intelligence and autonomy than the Soldier and the Brute, and their purpose was to "command" groups of 20-50 Soldiers and 1-5 Brutes. They acted as relays for the Queen's telepathy, and in truth they did not truly command their subordinates - merely to relay the Queen's orders - but they had the ability to act on their own initiative to some extent. If a Sergeant was killed, the Soldiers and Brutes under their command would be distributed out amongst other Sergeants who were under strength, a process that happened immediately. Hunter The Hunter was amongst the most intelligent and autonomous Xaenis, only behind the Keeper and the Queen herself. Hunters were stealth troops, often acting alone or in small groups, who would undertake assassinations and other special operations. On the rare occasions they took part in open battle, they would be responsible for leading flanking attacks. Keeper The Keeper was the most intelligent and autonomous Xaenis besides the Queen herself. Keepers were in charge of managing the Hive, controlling the flow of corpses into the vats to get the right quantity and mixture, and acting as relays for the Queen's telepathy - her control over the Hive itself, which was often far away, was weak, and only made possible with the Keepers. Carrier The Carrier was the Xaenis most crucial to the reproduction process, transporting corpses to the Hive where they could be processed in the vats. Carriers would eat the corpses (but only partially digest them) and then go to the Hives, throwing themselves and the contents of their stomach into the vats. Because they did not completely digest what they ate, once they went out on a mission to gather corpses they began to slowly starve. This was not a problem as they were destined to be reprocessed as soon as they returned anyway. The carriers resembled large snakes or worms with exceedingly wide mouths and uneven sharp teeth. Unlike other Xaenise, their eyes were a vibrant yellow all over, and had cat-like pupils rather than the usual round pupils. Also unlike other Xaenise, they possessed no exoskeleton but instead had bare white flesh with visible black veins.